A good question. I get to procure my computer hardware with minimal complaints, and she gets to accquire garden/house decorations with minimal complaints from me, subject to the sensible limits of our budget. This gets quite difficult for me since my appreciation of household decorations diminishes are their price increases. This phenomenon does not carry over as readily to computer gadgetry. Lately there has been a bit of an imbalance as the price some of the items on my wish list have inflated to the point where I don't purchase them... As for time, if I feel my quality time usage is out of balance I agree readily to proposals for alternate quality time. This often seems to involve trips to the inlaws. If my seven year old wants to read a story or go to the park generally I am there whether I have dedicated lots of time to my hobby or not. I review these techniques frequently since my implementation is sometimes less than perfect. Paul On Wed, 28 Jun 2000, Bill Bradford wrote:

Bill Bradford wrote: Jen is of the opinion that, considering the universe of other possible vices and weaknesses that I could have selected from, this one, while perhaps a bit peculiar, is better than most. She's also suffered through my other hobbies -- cars, aviation, brewing and glass audio -- so she's already had a chance to perfect setting limits. I also don't fence her off from these activities but rather allow her to get involved to whatever level she chooses. Consequently she's become a pilot in her own right, is always there on brew day and while she's not going to be wiring up 211s anytime soon she enjoys the sound of glass and is always there to tell me how much she likes -- or dislikes -- my latest dabblings in analog. Her rules are few but hard: - This stuff has to remain confined to designated areas, which translates as rented storage, the garage and my office. Nothing can be stacked outside and the garage has to, in general, remain functional for at least one car. It is, however, possible to get a day pass to use the kitchen or the wash rack area in back in order to clean stuff. - It's a hobby, which means that it generally has to live somewhere below home and yard maintenance tasks in the priority scheme. - I'm allowed to spend significant sums in support of this (and other) hobbies, but it's factored into the overall scheme of things. If I get a new machine, she gets a new dress for her collection of Victorian clothing. If I get a new piece of test equipment she gets something for *her* lab (yesterday it was a power tree limber for her silvaculture lab). And before I buy that 5000 sq ft shop building down the road we have to tack on the new addition and buy an airplane. - I have to stay focused, especially since the trip she took with me to Marvin's place (Marvin has a collection to die for, but Jen made it clear that if mine ever became that large that she'd have me committed). All in all she's incredibly supportive of all the weird things that I do. I think part of her would prefer it if I hadn't selected *another* hobby which involves big, heavy, hard-to-move things, but it gives her fodder for when she wants to give me a good natured hard time ;-) -- Chris Kennedy chris(a)mainecoon.com http://www.mainecoon.com PGP fingerprint: 4E99 10B6 7253 B048 6685 6CBC 55E1 20A3 108D AB97